Monday 22 February 2016

On discovering Vernon Lodge on Marsland Road and a bit of romance from 1851 .... part 1

I have no idea whether Peter and Mariana had a happy marriage but I like the idea that when their new home was finished in 1851, they added their initials on the wall, where it still proudly looks down on Marsland Road today

Vernon Lodge, 2016
They had been married in London in 1843 and by 1845 were renting number 21 Lever Street in the city centre.

Mr Royle was a surgeon and back then Lever Street was a mix or people.  On the same side and within a few yards of their home the Royle’s could count four boarding houses,  rub shoulders with a fellow surgeon two doors down and count as their neighbours, a tailor, a plumber, a  linen draper, carpenter and a gilder.

Lever Street, 1849
To the north and east were the working class districts of Ancoats whose humble dwellings stood in the shadow of large textile mills, busy timber yards and much else in what passed for industry in a city which one historian called “the shock city of the industrial revolution.”

I do wonder what Mariana made of all this.  She had been born in the village of Withycombe Raleigh in Devon which was 2 miles from Exmouth with a population of just 1054 people.*

But with all such assumptions you do have to be careful.  Mariana had married Robert in London so I guess she would have been familiar with the noise and buzz of a major city.

R & M, 1851
That said their new home would have been in a more pleasant location with the added attraction that since 1849 the railway line ran close by which could have taken Mr Roberts into the heart of the city in next to no time.

The journey to Sale Railway station was a relatively short one but with the opening of Brooklands in 1859 he would have even closer being able to mix the semi rural tranquillity of this bit of Cheshire with the big city.

And the Royle’s remained at the house through the 1860s into the 1890s.

In time I think I will go looking for more on these two and on their family delve deeper into both his professional activity Mariana's early life and something of the lives of their children.

But for now I will just thank Andy Robertson who out on his travels took the pictures of they home just a few days ago and include a link to the work which was being done a few years ago to renovate the lodge.

Vernon Lodge, 1875
And today as the Brooklands Lodge it is a "winning 4 star" guest house.***



Pictures; Vernon Lodge, 2016 from the collection of Any Robertson, Lever Street in 1851, from Slater's Street Directory, 1851 and in 1849 from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1844-49, and Venon Lodge in 1910 from the OS map of Cheshire, 1870-75 ,courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/


*A Topographical Dictionary of England in four volumes, Samuel Lewis, Vol 4 1840, page 529

**Historic Sale lodge is being renovated, Messenger, August 29 2013
http://www.messengernewspapers.co.uk/news/whereyoulive/sale/10642017.Historic_Sale_lodge_is_being_renovated/

***Brooklands Lodge, http://www.brooklandslodge.co.uk/ 208 Marsland Rd, Sale, Manchester M33 3NE
0161 973 3283

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